Did Vikings invent one of the first parliaments?
The Vikings did not invent the thing, but their Icelandic assembly at a rift between two continents is still called the oldest surviving parliament.
▶ Start the storyNot quite: they did not invent it, but they made it central to how they lived. A thing was a governing assembly in early Germanic societies, made up of the free people of the community and presided over by a . Tacitus gave the first detailed description of a thing in 98 CE, long before the Viking Age. What the Vikings did was use it at every level: in the Viking Age, things were public assemblies of free men that worked as parliaments and courts at local, regional and levels.
98 CE
Tacitus describes a Germanic thing
930
The Althing is founded at Þingvellir
1262
The Althing loses its legislative power
1904
Legislative power is restored
They solved disputes and made political decisions. The thing legislated, elected chieftains and kings and judged by a law that the memorised and recited. The Icelandic Althing, founded in 930, is considered the oldest surviving parliament in the world.
But it was not democracy as we know it. Things were not elected bodies in the modern sense, and only free men of full age could take part, according to Norway's law, though women were present at some things. Some scholars say powerful clan heads dominated them, while others say every free man could put his case.
Time was not kind to them. Towards the end of the Viking Age, kings took control of the assemblies and things became mainly courts. Yet the word lives on in the names of the Icelandic Alþing, the Norwegian Storting and the Isle of Man's Tynwald.
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Recap
The Vikings did not invent the thing, but they used it as parliament and court, and Iceland's Althing of 930 is the oldest still surviving.
💡 A trick to remember it · Think of an open-air parliament where a lawspeaker keeps the whole law in his head and free men gather round to hear it.
Surprising fact · Þingvellir lies on the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Sources (4)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (21 claims) cites at least one of these.